Get Rich or Die Tryin’ REVIEW

If I wrote this review true to the spirit of the new 50 Cent biopic “Get Rich or Die Tryin’”, you’d be entertained for points, but would be dragging through the long dull passages. You might find certain aspects amusing, but overall, you’d be a little frustrated by the unenthusiastic, mumbling narrative. Also, not to give myself more credit than is due, but you might have been expecting a lot more. Perhaps that’s where the analogy cuts off – I’ve never won any awards for doing this, whereas director Jim Sheridan most certainly has for doing his job. The degree of critical acclaim for his films, including “In the Name of the Father”, “My Left Foot”, and “In America” (one of my personal favorites), is serious, and demands a certain noteworthiness of his new work. Making “Get Rich or Die Tryin’” all the more noteworthy in the context of Sheridan, however, is its subject matter. Never before has this Irish immigrant filmmaker deviated so far from his personal roots within his work. It has been said that the stories of gangsta rapper 50 Cent and Sheridan themselves have a lot in common, in terms of climbing to success from an impoverished beginning, but culturally and geographically, they almost couldn’t be further apart. It’s almost as though the suits at Interscope Records and Paramount sat around a table and asked, “What’s weirder than Curtis Hanson directing the Eminem movie? How about Jim Sheridan directing the 50 Cent movie!” Unfortunately, this one just doesn’t work out quite as well.

Much of the blame for the film’s lacklusterness must go its star and subject, rapper Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson. His performance, even as a thinly veiled version of himself called Marcus, seems tired and draggy. He mumbles both his narration and his dialogue to such a degree that it was often unintelligible. At first I wasn’t sure if it was bad acoustics in the part of the auditorium I was in, or maybe my formerly-suburban white-guy ears, but several others have confirmed to me that he was indeed mumbly, and at times very difficult to understand. Not that that made a big difference to the primarily African-American crowd at the screening, who reacted strongly to the film, and in all the right places. So maybe it will be a hit with that demographic, but on the whole, from a storytelling point of view, I can’t say it deserves to be. Much time is spent detailing how crappy life is for the main character and his associates, but not enough is made of his supposed search for identity and the life changing events that bring on his transition from gun-toting street thug to rap star. True, we go with him to prison, and yes, we witness him getting shot to smithereens, taking nine hits at close range – including one to the mouth – and surviving. These scenes do pack their own wallops, to be sure. But when he finally does emerge as a rap sensation in the final minutes of the film, it feels almost tacked on.

While the sordid details of the previous, crime-filled life of 50 Cent haven’t exactly been top secret since his rise to fame, one still can’t help but wonder if we might be getting a slightly sanitized version of the story here. Other characters perpetrate most of the really bad crimes on-screen. A friend at the screening even wondered if the cohort played by Terrence Howard, who does a lot of the dirty work, even exists in real life. I don’t know about that, but Howard does a great job of playing the character, which is to be expected, considering his head-turning portrayals in “Crash”, “Four Brothers”, and the excellent “Hustle & Flow”. Too bad Howard isn’t in this film more. Also good is Joy Bryant as the main character’s love interest and mother of his child. The bad guys are menacing, and the street life is vivid and textured, but that alone can’t save this rapper movie, which, might I add, doesn’t have one memorable song, or even much rap for that matter.

I don’t think Sheridan was simply cashing a paycheck here, as there’s more to this film than that. At times, it seems he set out to make a good old fashioned blaxploitation film, complete with urban grunge, gun violence, drugs, and a semi-graphic sex scene, but this film can’t compare to the best of that subgenre. There’s a chance that a second viewing on DVD (with subtitles turned on) would heighten my opinion, but overall, I’m left disappointed. I don’t expect to see Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson working as an actor in many more movies beyond this, that’s for sure. It isn’t all his fault, but the screenplay’s unwavering commitment to the biopic format causes the film to often drift and wander to its conclusion, which feels awfully anticlimactic. Kind of like my anticipation of this film itself. If it would’ve worked, it might’ve been truly great, and that’s the kinda sad part about this.

Finally, the title “Get Rich or Die Tryin’” is not only generally awful, but also doesn’t really reflect the theme of the movie at all. Yeah, a lot of characters spend a lot of time doing dubious things to get a lot of money, but no one ever goes on about how filthy stinkin’ rich they want to get. The word “rich” evokes things like fancy mansions and country clubs, things that are light years from the reality of this film. On “Letterman” the other night, 50 Cent was on, and I could’ve sworn he said, “The movie’s so much better than the title. So much better than the title.” Again, he was difficult to understand, but assuming that is indeed what he said, he was correct insomuch as it is an awful title. Unmemorable, convoluted, and too long, it’s a title that the film almost deserves.

- Jim Tudor